Disk mounting for furnace conveyer shafts



Feb. 27, 1934. F. A. FAHRENWALD DISK MOUNTING FOR FURNACE CONVEYER SHAFTS Original Filed Dec. 10, 1930 Patented Feb. 27, 1934 UNETB DISK MOUNTING FOR FURNACE CONVEYER SHAFTS Frank A. Fahrenwald, Chicago, 111.

Original application December 10, 1930, Serial No. 501,257. Divided and this application September 21, 1931. Serial No. 564,117

2 Claims.

This invention relates to means through which to mount disk-like members upon a shaft and establish driving connection between them; and particularly that class of means disclosed broadly in U. S. Patent No. 570,226, issued October 27, 1896, to McAdams, according to which raised portions formed on the shaft receive fitting portions formed on the disk in developing the driving connection, and each disk is constructed with not only its central opening through which it receives the shaft but an additional slot, recess or opening communicating radially with the central opening and of such size that it will readily accommodate the raised portion of the shaft while the disk is being passed to approximately its ultimate position on the shaft, after which a partial rotation of the disk upon the shaft brings the fitting portion of the disk and the raised portion of the shaft into a relation which insures the transmission of drive between them.

This application is a division of my application Serial No. 501,257, filed December 10, 1930, which has now become U. S. Patent No. 1,824,470, dated September 22, 1931.

In the accompanying drawing- Figure 1 shows, in axial section, a portion of a furnace conveyer of the type described, in which a plurality of work-supporting members are made to surround the shaft and are held against longi- 30 tudinal displacement and in driven relation thereto through the medium of raised keys.

Figure 2 is an end view showing the shaft in section and a work-supporting member in elevation and in the relative position to the shaft which it assumes in reaching its place upon the shaft.

Figure 3 is an end View, on an enlarged scale, of parts shown in Figure 2, and with a fragment of the work-supporting member rotated from the position of Figure 2 to bring it into interlock with the raised key, and secured in said position.

Figure l is a detail section taken on the line 4;c .:r of Figure 3; and

Figure 5 is a view similar to Figure 3 showing raised keys constructed without materially changing the thickness of the metal of the shaft.

1 represents the shaft, 2 the work-supporting units, and 3 (in Figures 1 to 4, inclusive) and 3a (in Figure 5) represent raised keys upon the shaft through means of which the work-supporting elements are mounted upon the shaft.

As shown in Figures 2 to 5, inclusive, the worksupporting element 2 is provided with one or more openings 4 through which it receives a corresponding number of raised keys 3, while in assembly with said keys and associated with the opening or openings 4 it has a larger opening or openings 5 which adapt it to pass freely over one or more antecedent keys in reaching the key by which it is to be locked upon the shaft.

In the specific embodiment of the invention here illustrated, the work-supporting element 2 has its shaft-receiving opening defined by the wall 6 separate and distinct from the locking opening 4 in the sense that it is of less radial dimension and merges with said opening 4 in a manner to form an offset 7 which provides an arresting shoulder that limits rotation of the mem her 2 in the direction of assembly; and a pin 8 is inserted in the opening 5 subsequent to such rotation (for instance, an ordinary cotter pin as shown in Figure 4), which occupies a position between the raised key 3 and the remote radial wall of the opening 5 and serves to prevent unlocking rotation in the opposite direction, so that, given a means to interlock key 3 and the walls of the opening 4 in the axial direction, the mounting of the work-supporting member 2 in driven relation to the shaft 1 is complete. The means for thus preventing longitudinal displacement between the work-supporting member 2 and the raised key 3 consists, in the illustrated embodiment, in lugs 9 on the raised key, of sufficiently greater radial dimension than the outer wall 4a of the opening 4 to interlock the parts axially of the shaft.

While in the broader aspect of the invention raised keys 3 may be provided by lugs formed integrally upon the shaft 1, these keys (as shown at 3a in Figure 5) are preferably made in accordance with the teachings of application Serial No. 501,- 257 hereinbefore identified, in that the wall of the shaft 1 is diverted to provide the radial upstanding key without materially changing the thickness of the wall and, therefore, Without tendency to develop cooling cracks in the structure of the metal when the shaft, with its integral keys, is formed by foundry methods.

What is claimed is:

l. A furnace conveyer comprising a shaft with a raised key and a work-supporting element having a shaft-receiving opening, a key-receiving opening extending radially from said shaftreceiving opening, and a key-fitting opening extending circumferentially of the element from said key-receiving opening; said key having projections spaced longitudinally of the shaft; and said key-fitting opening having one of its confines in position to enter between said projections and thereby fix the element against longitudinal displacement on the shaft.

2. A work supporting element for use in a conveyer as described in claim 1, which said element is in the general form of a disk provided with a circumferential tread and with a relatively thin web-like portion through which it bears upon the shaft, and which said web-like portion provides the confine of the key-fitting opening which fits between the projections on the key.

FRANK A. FAI-IRENWALD. 

